Q: Hi, I was enlisted in the US Coast Guard for 5.5 years. After my first four-year tour, I re-enlisted for a second four year tour which I didn't complete due to an Administrative Discharge I received. The character of service was General and the reason for discharge was Misconduct, but this was issued by Non judicial punishment. After submitting my case to a review board changed the character of service to Under Honorable conditions. As I understand this makes me eligible to receive educational assistance thru the post 911 GI Bill but after submitting a Statement in support of claim providing evidence of the change in the type of discharge no answer was receive from the VARO in GA. One day I decide to call the hotline to verify my status and the person who I spoke to told me my discharge was still not Honorable without giving me enough reason to which this determination was made. I requested a written explanation of this decision along with the specific guidance used to support it and still have not heard from them. Please help me understand this determination and let me know if there's anything else I can do since I'm starting law school this fall. Thanks!

A: Well just so you know, we are not the VA. I’m trying to follow your question and I think I know what you are asking. First, to get a character of service discharge changed requires you to submit a request to the Board of Corrections of your service branch. The Board of Corrections has nothing to do with the VA.

I’m assuming your request was approved because your character of service changed from General to General Under Honorable conditions, however, you need  a fully Honorable to be able to use your GI Bill benefits. The VA won’t be able to tell you anything about the determination of your change in character of service; the only thing they can see is that it was changed, but not changed to something that will allow you to use your Post 9/11 GI Bill or Montgomery GI Bill benefits. Because you had your character of service already change, unless you have some information that was not previously included in your first request, there isn’t much else you can do.